Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Blacksburg, Site of the Next Blowup

While everybody is picking over the remains from "The Backyard Brawl" between Florida International and Miami, we turn our attention to another Atlantic Coast Conference powder keg. Yes, we're talking about Blacksburg, home of the Virginia Tech Hokies. It has been another busy season for Frank Beamer's team. Arrests, personal fouls, attitude on the field and sidelines. ... Our money is riding on something ugly happening soon at Blacksburg, and judging by letters to the Roanoke Times, others are too, including ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit, who was (kind of) defending his Hokie rant from last week. Now Beamer promises an end to the shenanigans and says this time he means business. As for the ACC, things are ugly enough. What does it say about the league when a struggling Miami can lose 13 players to suspension and still be a 17.5-point road favorite over Duke?